The present invention relates to focal plane arrays (FPAs) within solid state camera devices, and more specifically to a quasi-one-dimensional focal plane array for vision scanners, where a quasi-one-dimensional FPA is defined to be one having a ratio of pixels in two directions of greater than about 5:1. The invention also relates to a system employing a quasi-one-dimensional FPA scanner.
Vision scanners generally include a camera. A focal plane array (FPA) in the camera converts the optical image into electrical signals. The most common type of FPA is a charge coupled device (CCD).
Items containing bar code labels are not necessarily of the same shape or size, and the location of the bar-codes on the items is not the same on every package. A bar-code may be small, compared to the total size of the item. Thus, typical vision cameras employ one or two-dimensional FPAs. One-dimensional FPAs are those which have many pixels arranged in a line. Two-dimensional FPAs are those having a ratio of pixels in the two directions between 1:1 to 2:1. Such FPAs have many pixels, which allows the vision camera to achieve a high resolution and capture detailed bar code information over a large area. However, typical two-dimensional FPAs are expensive, due to the large number of pixels. They also require a significant amount of memory to store and process image information.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an FPA for vision scanners which balances cost with resolution, coverage, and memory capacity.